Chapter-1

Fundamental Concepts
Mesfin Tilahun

Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Introduction to Instrumentation Engineering

February, 2018

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 Overview

Overview

1 Introduction
Basic Concepts of Measurement

2 Standards of measurement

3 Functional elements of a measurement system

4 Application areas of measurement

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 Introduction

Definition of instrumentation system

An instrumentation system is a physical system which is a

collection of a physical object connected in such a way to give the
desired output response.
An instrumentation system is an assembly of various instruments
and other components interconnected to measure ,analyze and
control the Electrical, Thermal, Hydraulic and other non electrical
quantities.
An instrumentation system is a science and engineering of
measuring and/or controlling a physical variables(quantities).

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 Introduction Basic Concepts of Measurement

Basic Concepts of Measurement

The measurement of a given parameter or quantity is the act of

quantitative comparison between a predefined standard and an
unknown quantity to be measured.
For the result to be meaningful, there are two basic requirements:-
i) The comparison standard is accurately defined and commonly
accepted.
ii) The calibration procedure and the instrument used for obtaining
the comparison must have provable reliability.

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 Introduction Basic Concepts of Measurement

Basic Concepts of Measurement

Measurements are made with the help of instruments. An

instrument can be defined as a device or a system which is defined
in such a way that it maintains a functional relationship between a
prescribed property of a substance and a physical variable.
Example
A mercury-in-glass thermometer maintains a linear relationship
between thermal expansion of mercury (prescribed property) and
temperature (physical variable).

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 Introduction Basic Concepts of Measurement

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 Introduction Basic Concepts of Measurement

Measurement systems are set up for one or more of the following

functions:

Measurement of system parameter: present desired

information about the conditions of a system in the form of visual
indicator, registering or recording, monitoring or suitable
transmission.

Examples
thermometer,
barometer, anemometer,
water/gas/electricity
meters

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 Introduction Basic Concepts of Measurement

Control of a certain process or condition: the measurement

system forms an integral part if automatic control systems which
in turn provides deliberate guidance or manipulation to maintain a
set-point or to change variables according to a preset program.

Example
What do these two have in common?

Tornado ⇒

Boeing 777 ⇒

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 Introduction Basic Concepts of Measurement

Verification of physical phenomena/scientific theories:

experiments are conducted to formulate certain empirical relations
where adequate theory does not exist. Furthermore, experiments
motivated by the hope of developing new theories, discovering new
phenomena or checking the validity of certain hypothesis require
measurement systems.

Example
Coulomb postulated that the friction
between two dry surfaces is proportional
to the normal reaction and is independent
of the area of contact. His hypothesis
has since been verified experimentally and
is known as Coulomb’s law of dry friction.

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 Standards of measurement

Standards of measurement

A standard of measurement is defined as the physical

representation of the unit of measurement which could be an
arbitrary material standard or a natural phenomenon that
includes physical and atomic constants.
International standards: are devices designed and constructed
to the specifications of an international form. They represent the
units of measurements of various physical quantities to the highest
possible accuracy that is attainable by the use of advanced
techniques of production and measurement technology. These
standards are maintained by the International Bureau of Weights
and Measures at Svres, France.
Example
The meter is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during
a time interval of 1/299, 792, 458 of a second.

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 Standards of measurement

Primary standards: are devices maintained by standards

organizations or national laboratories in different parts of the
world and are calibrated independently by absolute measurements.
One of the main functions of maintaining primary standards is to
calibrate/check and certify secondary reference standards.

Secondary standards: are the basic reference standards

employed by industrial measurement laboratories. These are freely
available to the ordinary user of the instruments for checking and
calibration of working standards.

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 Standards of measurement

Working standards: are devices that are commercially available

and are duly checked and certified against either the primary or
secondary standards. Working standards are very widely used for
calibrating general laboratory instruments, for carrying out
comparison of measurements or for checking the range of accuracy
of industrial products.

Exercise (1)
Describe the fundamental units of measurement and the standards
defined to maintain them.

Exercise (2)
Based on the fundamental units, obtain the SI units for the following
derived quantities:
Resistance, ohm (Ω)
Capacitance, Farad(F )
Inductance, Henry (H)
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 Functional elements of a measurement system

Functional elements of a measurement system

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 Functional elements of a measurement system

(1) Sensing element: this is an element which comes first in contact

with the process and gives an output which depends in some way
on the variable to be measured.
Example
Thermocouple where millivolt e.m.f. depends on temperature
Strain gauge where resistance depends on mechanical strain
Orifice plate where pressure drop depends on flow rate.
If there is more than one sensing element in a system, the element in
contact with the process is termed the primary sensing element, the
others secondary sensing elements.

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 Functional elements of a measurement system

(2) Signal conditioning element: This takes the output of the

sensing element and converts it into a form more suitable for
further processing, usually a d.c. voltage, d.c. current or frequency
signal.
Example
Deflection bridge which converts an impedance change into a voltage
change
Amplifier which amplifies millivolts to volts
Oscillator which converts an impedance change into a variable frequency
voltage.

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 Functional elements of a measurement system

(3) Signal processing element: This takes the output of the

conditioning element and converts it into a form more suitable for
presentation.
Example
Analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) which converts a voltage into a
digital form for input to a computer
Computer which calculates the measured value of the variable from the
incoming digital data.
Typical calculations are:
1 Computation of total mass of product gas from flow rate and density
data.
2 Integration of chromatograph peaks to give the composition of a gas
stream.
3 Correction for sensing element non-linearity.

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 Functional elements of a measurement system

(4) Signal transmission element: when the elements of the system

are physically separated, it is necessary to transmit the data from
one stage to other. Note that this element is not a subject of
discussion in this course; enthusiastic students are encouraged to
read on this subject elsewhere.
Example
Radio links or telemetry systems.

(5) Data presentation element: communicates the information

about the measurand to the human observer or presents it in an
intelligible form. The presented data may be used by the system
for monitoring, controlling, or analyzing purposes.
Example
Monitoring- VDU
Recording-magnetic tapes

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 Application areas of measurement

Application areas of measurement

Properties to be measured Application Field

Atmospheric pressure, hygrometry level Metrology
Battery fluid level Automobile
Beam resistance Civil engineering
Blood Glucose leve Biology
ECG signals Health, medicine
Fiber optic flow Telecommunications
Flight speed, altitude Transportation
Presence detection Home automation
Radar detection, surveillance Military
Sugar level in a fruit Agriculture
Undersea pressure, depth Marine industry

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